On Nigerian Army’s commendable CSR
Despite the supreme sacrifice soldiers often pay to protect the nation’s territorial integrity as part of their duties, the Nigerian Army has gone a step further than that by now engaging itself in the business of providing what is commonly known as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to ordinary Nigerians, just like the big companies.
The Army has within the past three years or so provided a large number of basic social amenities to various communities across the country, thereby endearing itself to millions of Nigerians nationwide. What the soldiers are now doing is a new initiative and the first of its type in the history of the Nigerian Army.
This new innovation under the leadership of the current Chief of Army Staff (COAS) , Lt. Gen. T.Y. Buratai, involves the provision of basic social amenities and services like potable drinking water, construction of bridges, establishment of health centers, provision of clothing and food items to ordinary people usually found at the grassroots level in various communities all over the country.
The projects whose locations cut across religious and ethnic barriers in the six geopolitical zones of the country were all initiated by the COAS. These facilities also known as non-military projects are located among other places at Garkida, in Adamawa State and at Fika in Yobe State, where modern boreholes have been sunk. Similarly there was the renovation of a Central Primary School at Akpochiro in Imo State, road construction at Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State, construction of maternity ward at Ika in Delta State and construction of water project in Gelengu in Gombe State.
Others are the provision of medical facilities and drugs in Taraba State, assistance to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in many parts of the country as well as the setting up of an Army Call Center in Abuja. Others include the sinking of boreholes in Mafa and Dikwa areas in Borno State, distribution of tractors to farmers in Gudumbali in Borno State, renovation of primary schools in Markudi Benue State, renovation of health centres in Opoji in Edo State and the renovation of medical centres in Mbaito in Imo State.
There is no doubt that the army’s efforts is aimed at winning the hearts of the people across the country.